In August 2024, ESA’s JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (JUICE) made historical past with a daring Moon-Earth flyby and double gravity attend maneuver. Because the spacecraft zipped past our Moon and home planet, NASA’s Jovian Energetic Neutrals and Ions (JENI) instrument onboard JUICE captured the sharpest-ever image of Earth’s radiation belts — swaths of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetosphere.
The center of this infographic presentations the sharpest-ever image of the cloud of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, while the insets trace measurements of high-vitality ions and electrons detected alongside the JUICE’s flyby route. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Josh Diaz.
“As soon as we observed the crisp, fresh photos, high fives went one day of the room,” stated Dr. Matina Gkioulidou, deputy lead of JENI at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
“It used to be sure we had captured the colossal ring of sizzling plasma encircling Earth in unprecedented ingredient, an success that has sparked excitement for what is to attain back at Jupiter.”
Unlike former cameras that depend on light, JENI uses particular sensors to capture crammed with life honest atoms emitted by charged particles interacting with the extended atmospheric hydrogen gasoline surrounding Earth.
The JENI instrument is the most modern generation of this kind of digicam, constructing on the success of a the same instrument on NASA’s Cassini mission that published the magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter.
On August 19, JENI and its partner particle instrument Jovian Energetic Electrons (JoEE) made the most of their temporary 30-minute bump into with the Moon.
As JUICE zoomed genuine 750 km (465 miles) above the lunar surface, the instruments gathered data on the residence atmosphere’s interaction with our nearest celestial partner.
It’s an interaction scientists question to head making an are attempting magnified at Jupiter’s moons, as the gasoline giant’s radiation-rich magnetosphere barrels over them.
On August 20, JUICE hurled into Earth’s magnetosphere, passing some 60,000 km (37,000 miles) above the Pacific Ocean, where the instruments got their first taste of the merciless atmosphere that awaits at Jupiter.
Racing via the magnetotail, JoEE and JENI encountered the dense, decrease-vitality plasma characteristic of this procure 22 situation sooner than plunging into the coronary heart of the radiation belts.
There, the instruments measured the million-level plasma encircling Earth to analyze the secrets of plasma heating that are identified to gas dramatic phenomena in planetary magnetospheres.
“I couldn’t have hoped for a bigger flyby,” stated Dr. Pontus Brandt, essential investigator of JoEE and JENI at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
“The richness of the suggestions from our deep-dive via the magnetosphere is wonderful. JENI’s image of your total plan we genuine flew via used to be the cherry on top.”
“It’s a highly effective combination we can exploit within the Jovian plan.”
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This text used to be adapted from an normal liberate by NASA.
